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Talk:Arquebus/@comment-45075715-20200218224232
Something is seriously wrong with the arquebus at least in the hands of the AI in my experience and testing (CKOs and Barclay Arquebusier and also companions trying out Donavan's) which makes them absolutely inferior to every other ranged weapon (even throwing). For a weapon so difficult to access (a quality I'd typically associate as being one that's extremely useful), its performance is beyond sub-par and just absolutely inferior in every way I can determine to the point of making me want to throw it in the rubbish bin. Aside from the obvious like not being able to use them from mounts, I found them faring poorly even in siege offense where I thought they'd shine the most when compared to crossbows. Changing my CKO units from using Hawkstorm or Siege/Maiden X-Bows to Arquebus caused their kill rates to slow down to a crawl in comparison in siege offense, even against heavily armored and shielded units, and even with super high firearm prof. I actually went from steamrolling sieges with bows and x-bows to being defeated in some of them once I switched to arquebus. It almost seems like the AI is very inaccurate with them somehow since I don't see that many kills in the log when a number fire off a huge volley of shots like they missed most of them even against stationary targets from a distance (either that or the shots actually hit but didn't actually kill the enemies -- it's hard to see/tell since I can't see the projectiles except my log isn't spamming with enemy deaths like when I use lots of X-Bows or archers and even when lots of units fire in unison*). * Another possibility is that the AI is aiming at mostly the same units even when I spread them out. That might explain why most of the shots seem to miss since the first shot might kill the targeted unit and then all the rest miss. If that's the case, the extremely slow reloading rate is going to be far more penalizing than the faster rates of X-Bows/Bows with so many shots wasted unless the AI is improved to avoid aiming at the same unit or to stagger the timing at which they fire so that they don't fire at the same time which would have the same effect. This is just a wild conjecture -- all I know is that the AI seems to miss lots of shots with the Arquebus and my game log is not flooded with kills like when I use Bows or X-Bows. I think this was also an issue with Fire and Sword although I was never that big a fan of the mod to test it thoroughly, but I've heard that archers are much more powerful in that one than units with muskets or pistols. In my experience they are absolutely inferior in every way possible to bows or x-bows with the exception of the lack of STR requirements, but the low STR requirements aren't all that useful for a weapon that is so hard to access and unlock. They need some sort of buff in my opinion to make them on par with x-bows or bows if not outright superior in certain scenarios like siege offense (they don't have to be superior in all scenarios, but they should be in some, especially when they are so difficult to acquire -- or they should be much easier to acquire -- one or the other). It's hard to tell for sure but I even upgraded some Barclay Balestras to Arquebusiers and saw their kill rates drop substantially! It was more like I downgraded them than upgraded them by moving from X-Bow to firearm. I'm fairly certain the kill rates dropped significantly since there was a period where half my troops were Balestras, not yet upgraded, and other half Arquebusiers, and in every battle I was seeing my Balestras flooding the game log with kills while standing on top of a hill while I barely ever saw any Arquebusiers manage to kill anything even though I had near equal numbers of them. It's really weird to upgrade a unit and see it become way less effective while costing more. It might be more an issue with the AI than the weapon itself. I do find that when I take Donavan's rifle for my character and use it, it starts to become promising as my firearm profs increase sufficiently (like one-hit kill of armored/shielded unit), and it's cool that it has no STR requirements (although a serious bummer that I can't use it from a mount, making me still prefer a light or maiden crossbow with mount for a low STR build). But I can see its punching power in my hands, but the AI seems to do something stupid with them to not get the most out of each shot as crucial with a weapon that takes so long to reload.